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Gary Martin JH 15371 Member
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I need some advise on repairing some stretched metal. After striping the paint off of 15371 I found that the metal was stretched on the rear panel above the gas tank, just to the left of the gas filler. My guess is some one sat on the rear panel at some point. Metal is slightly depressed, and when you push it up, it "pops" up the other way and is then too high. I have a oxy-acetylene torch, and have read online how to perform the shrinking technique, but have never attempted this. Heat up a dime size area to cherry red color and using a body hammer and dolly tap around the area ending up in the middle of the hot spot. I'm thinking two or three of these procedures would be enough to make it stable again. I don't want to heat it too many times and make things worse. I'm fairly good with other body repairs and paint work. Can a reasonably skilled person do this, or should I take it to a professional body man ? Gary |
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Lawrence Tod Member 
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Gary Are we talking about the fiberglass panel that receives the gas filler cap? I would think bringing an acetylene torch anywhere near this would be sort of disaterous! JH11211 has a fiberglass panel adjacent to the top edge of the trunk to place where the soft top bottom rear is fastened,this same panel also meets the front top of the "wings" and runs to the rear door pillars sort of capital "D"shaped. Is yours made from metal?! Maybe I am interpreting this location badly, but I've just walked out to the garage twice to make sure I think I know what I'm talking about. Lawrence |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator 
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If yours is fiberglass you have a unique JH! The only fiberglass part that I can think of is the air box on the carburetors. Kurt Housh Doh! Oh Yeah, those headlight surrounds. Last edited on 01-21-2006 04:54 pm by Jensen Healey |
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Lawrence Tod Member
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Really!? Uh Oh I will take a picture and post it. I am positive that it is fiberglass as I had it out a few times when I first aquired the car in preperation for bodywork. I had removed it in order to get a better fit where it met the top edge of the trunk. And you could certainly see that it was fiberglass around the whole where the filler cap goes through. I can't decide whether to be thrilled for my uniqueness, or concerned that I have some sort of crappy reproduction panell on my Jensen. Lawrence |
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Gary Martin JH 15371 Member
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Lawrence, Mine is metal. See picture below from JHPS photo gallery. View is just to the right of filler cap and the gas tank is removed. Only fiberglass body parts on a stock JH are the headlight surrounds that I know of. Yes, that would be very interesting if your rear panel above the gas tank is fiberglass. My question about how to shrink metal does not seem to be getting much response. Guess this is kind of a special question that only a professional body man can answer. http://jhppg.com/gallery/album106/IMG_0388 Gary Last edited on 01-20-2006 08:31 pm by Gary Martin JH 15371 |
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pc Member
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Be careful who you ask about it. These days, most body shop guys are parts hangers, not metal shapers. Make sure the person you ask has the right skills to make the call. If you really want to do it yourself find a junk panel to practice on first. Eastwood sells lots of tools, books and videos for this sort of thing, including a shrinking video. (Of course, you could just buy the video from the guy who made it, The Tin Man. I haven’t seen the videos but he’s got an incredible reputation for his work.) PC. |
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Art DeKneef Member
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Gary, Paul is right on asking the right person. There are a couple of ways to shrink metal. One is the way you mentioned using a small localized area heated and treated. The thing that is difficult is determining where to heat and where to tap the meatal. It is really easy to make things much worse really quick. Another way is to use a shrinking disc. A good place to see what I mean is John's picture tutorial. http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/communityalbums.cgi?action=openalbum&albumid=9980121727059. It can be done. It's not something I have mastered. I consider myself a rookie at that. Thankfully I haven't needed to do it yet on my JHs. Maybe someone knows of a JH in a junkyard near you where you could cut out the whole piec and replace it. Art |
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